"Falstaff" at the Nuremberg State Theater: Verdi's suburban women

Mini godfather meets suburban women: David Hermann's "Falstaff" in Nuremberg is cliché-free, enigmatic and has a bad, surreal ending.

It could be Scampia in Naples or the Pigneto in Rome, definitely not Windsor.

Where only the satellite dish adorns the prefab balcony and downstairs the "kebab king" invites you to a quick, greasy snack.

And where, a few streets away, the suburban women of the nouveau riche society drink away their problems with Prosecco.

The fact that "Falstaff" does not necessarily invite you to slap your thighs is due to the music of Giuseppe Verdi, the libretto by Arrigo Boito, and even more so to the template, Shakespeare's "The Merry Wives of Windsor".

And yet there is a threat, you know that from many productions, slapstick or a title hero singer who stretches his (hopefully artificial) belly into the audience and finds it funny.

With director David Hermann, things are different at the Staatstheater Nürnberg.

Claudio Otelli is more of the mini godfather type.

Casual, also violent.

Although he drinks white wine from a tetra pack, he can transform himself into the elegant Strizzi with a silk scarf thrown over his head.

Precisely because he is different, free, self-confident, he becomes an object of desire for women - who actually wanted to play a trick on him.

It fits that Otelli masters the role with the baritone foil without showing off too much.

Still, one would have wished for a little more vocal grandeur.

Erotic things about an uptight investment advisor

Again and again there are small erotic scenes that dance between false pretenses and real lust.

So this gently bent “Falstaff”, brought into an undefined today, works.

The characters, drawn with just a few lines, are amusing (especially in the case of the suburban women), because everything happens largely cliché-free and naturally - and thanks to Carla Caminati (costumes) and the light, quickly changing scenery by Jo Schramm, it's also nice to look at.

It becomes a stereotype among the men, led by the jealous Ford, a kind of uptight investment advisor.

But that's in the nature of things, where two things rule life: testosterone and money.

Samuel Hasselhorn is a latently overwhelmed Ford, to which the virile, magnificent, resonant baritone may not quite fit.

Real character artists are Martin Platz (Bardolfo) and Hans Kittelmann (Dr. Cajus).

Both characters experience their gay outing in the finale, where every pot gets its lid.

Pistol bang for the finale

But the events in Hermann's direction have long since deviated from the enigmatic boulevard into the surreal, where Falstaff is ensnared as an erotic voodoo rag - until there is a pistol bang and a lady lies on the ground.

Not everything is developed conclusively from A to B.

As if something dark and problematic had to be handed in later.

On the other hand, it's fun how Emily Newton as the exhilarated Alice, Almerija Delic as the harsh Quickly, Corinna Scheurle as the annoyed, faltering Meg and Chloë Morgan as Nannetta move through the evening singing with a light, free height.

Conductor Björn Huestege is rather slow at work with the Nuremberg State Philharmonic.

Maybe also because the text and instrumental details are easier to get down that way.

Nevertheless, it's allowed to sparkle, the act ends have the necessary power.

And the best:

No one missed a directed essay on toxic masculinity or #MeToo.

After all, Verdi/Boito/Shakespeare negotiated it in their much more witty way, which is also what you take away from the premiere.